


Rockers and Counters

by a_big_apple



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, World Figure Skating Championships, figure skating AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-10
Updated: 2017-01-10
Packaged: 2018-09-16 13:40:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9274508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_big_apple/pseuds/a_big_apple
Summary: Arthur wants to win and kick Merlin’s skinny ass out there; he wants Merlin to skate his absolute best and show the world what he can do; he wants to bend Merlin backward over the boards and kiss the living daylights out of him on international television.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I've been watching a lot of Yuri!!! On Ice, can you tell? Written for the Avalon's Library Short Fic Fest!

Arthur is in second place after the short program, with Merlin ahead of him by an infuriating tenth of a point.  Before Arthur, no British man had medaled at the World Championships since Robin Cousins in 1980, before Arthur was even born.  It’s because of Arthur’s bronze last year that Merlin is even  _ here _ .  Arthur earned him that spot, earned the UK a second entry, and Merlin’s effusive celebration in the kiss and cry at the end of yesterday’s competition made Arthur want to kick something.

Now they’re stretching, working through choreography, avoiding each other’s eyes as the rest of the competitors take the ice one by one.  They stayed in their own rooms last night, by covert text agreement; at home they can sneak around fairly easily, but in a hotel full of other skaters and personnel they can’t afford the risk.  Coach Gaius is the only one who knows what they are to each other, even Arthur’s father is in the dark.  

Arthur wants to win and kick Merlin’s skinny ass out there; he wants Merlin to skate his absolute best and show the world what he can do; he wants to bend Merlin backward over the boards and kiss the living daylights out of him on international television.  At the moment, he has to content himself with a satisfying hamstring stretch, mentally calculating for the millionth time his program’s base value and how to rearrange mid-performance if he flubs something. 

He’s been told, by coaches and commentators and peers, that his skating is technically flawless but emotionally vacant.  Arthur’s never understood that, or what he’s meant to do about it.  He’s a perfectionist, yes, but he’s not cold.  He  _ thinks _ on the ice, about his strategy but also about his father, watching him with love expressed as high expectations, about his mother, who never won gold but was planning to fight for it again after giving birth to Arthur and didn’t get the chance.  This season, he thinks often about Merlin and his beaming smiles and his flyaway hair and the way his slender thighs are hard with hidden muscle.  He thinks about Merlin’s messy skating, vibrant and risky as if he’s about to fly apart into pure energy and light.  The way they’ve been chasing each other, trading the top spots in UK men’s singles back and forth since Merlin’s senior debut.

Arthur thinks about all of these things,  _ feels _ them somewhere deep in the center of his chest, in his gut.  He skates perfectly, crisp and clean and powerful, sharp as a sword, and thinks about all the love that no one but Merlin seems to know he has inside him.

Then he sits in the kiss and cry with Gaius, who was his mother’s coach, to hear his score.  His technical elements were all flawless, and the high base value works in his favor there; his program components score is often the sticking point, but today the total is a personal best, brushing tantalizingly close to the world record.  He’s solidly in first place, with only Merlin’s skate left.  Gaius smiles and gives him a one-armed hug, then strides along the boards to where Merlin is standing, costume glittering in the lights, waiting as the last of the sweepers clears the ice.

Arthur sits in the kiss and cry and watches Merlin skate, and thinks about the tiny flat in London where Merlin lives, alone, during competition season.  The flat he gave Arthur keys to a year ago, and three drawers in the bedroom dresser before that.  Where Merlin taught Arthur how to cook more than toast and how to love another human more than he loves his sport, and Arthur taught Merlin how to deepthroat and how to keep their private lives utterly secret.

Merlin got the short straw of everything they’ve taught each other.  He’s given Arthur so much, and Arthur is tired of repaying him with insecurity and shame.

He sits in the kiss and cry and watches Merlin give what looks to be the best performance of his career, offers Merlin a water bottle and a hug when he comes off the ice, wipes at the exhilarated tears on his face with a tissue and sits them down on the bench together.  Merlin stares at him as if he’s grown two heads, then curls into Arthur’s arm around his shoulders, lays his sweaty head against Arthur’s chest.

While they wait, Arthur leans down to murmur in Merlin’s ear.  “When we get the score, I want to kiss you,” he says.  “May I?”  He asks because Merlin is a soppy romantic and he loves scenes, but coming out live at the climactic moment of the World Figure Skating Championships is really a Scene and Arthur has to be sure.

Merlin goes still in his arms, though his chest is still heaving with exertion.  Then he turns his face into Arthur’s neck and sobs.  “Please.”

Waiting for the score is obviously going to take much too long.  Arthur turns on the bench, tipping Merlin’s flushed wet face up with his hand, and kisses him firmly, irrevocably, and with every emotion he has.

**Author's Note:**

> All I know about figure skating comes from casually watching it on tv, YOI, and Wikipedia. If you notice something that's inaccurate, please let me know! :) This also hasn't been Britpicked, so ditto if I made mistakes there.


End file.
